Thursday, March 29, 2012

My lone easter egger hen finally laid an egg today. Hopefully the rest of the hens in the coop will get the hint.

It's been a busy week full of tax filing and curriculum writing. Limey's also got me back on to writing my novel. The last time I worked on it was over 2 years ago.

The weather has turned yucky again. It's back to cold and snow. We did manage to plant half of the greenhouse with some cold season stuff like lettuce and cabbage. This year will be light on animals and heavy on produce. I think Limey nearly had a heart attack when he saw how much we spent on feed last year. Seeds and dirt are much easier on the wallet!

Vintage- I had lots to choose from here. The house, the woodstove, my treadle sewing machine. Instead I picked something I haven't photographed before. This is a Jay Flex Sterling necklace. Jay Flex was based out of Montreal and operated from the 1930's to the 1950's. I have matching clip on earrings but I couldn't find them.

Word or Quote-This one was easy. The sign in front of our house.

Nature's Own- Lots of choice here. This is a piece of bark we found laying on the ground outside. I held it up to the setting sun for the shot.

People- I'm sick so couldn't go out to photograph actual people. Instead I stole this picture from my archives. Here's the original post.

Photographer's Choice-I loved last week's water photo so I took another.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Every time I plan to make fish tacos, I chicken out and make something else. I finally convinced myself to attempt it and I'm glad I did. These tacos were sooo good. I always struggle to find fish recipes that we all like so it was nice to have this one go over so well.

Make the ganache first. Bring the milk to a boil and pour it into a bowl of chocolate. Stir to melt. Place the bowl in a cool place to thicken it up a bit.

For the crepes, mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add wet to dry. Whisk until smooth. You are supposed to refrigerate the mix until chilled but I never do.

Heat a frying pan up over medium heat and brush with a thin layer of butter. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan and swirl to spread it out into a larger circle. Cook until the bottom is golden about 35-40 seconds. Flip and cook the other side for another 10-15 seconds.

Spoon some ganache in the middle of each crepe. Top with sliced bananas then roll them up. Top with whipped cream.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to start up a playgroup for Annapolis Valley homeschoolers (unschoolers too) on Mondays at Little Homestead in the Valley. Check out the Annapolis Homeschooling Group or email me at littlehomsteadinthevalley@hotmail.com for more information.

I have really bad eyesight. My prescription is at least 10 years old so I can't always trust what I see. So when the kids were running ahead of us on the trail behind our property and I thought I saw a rock move, I assumed I was seeing things.

At this point I stopped and said, "Limey, is that a rock or an animal?" We both squinted for awhile and when dd2 suddenly stopped within a couple of feet of it, I yelled at her to back away.

We had to walk right next to the porcupine to continue down the path. I was pretty close when I took this photo.

After we passed, it turned around and moved very slowly away. The porcupine was definitely the highlight of our day.

Monday, March 12, 2012

And not windy so it was very pleasant outside today. As soon as breakfast was over and the house was tidied, the kids and I went outside to check things out. I managed to clean out the kid's yard and one of the paddocks. Afterward we headed to the front to explore.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

One of the words for this week's scavenger hunt is chocolate. I made a chocolate dessert that required a ganache filling. I had lots left over so the ganache went into the fridge to thicken while I made brownies to pair it with.

I've been using the same brownie recipe forever. It's dense and fudgy and perfect. It's basic and you can add whatever you want to pretty up. I don't add anything but frosting. This time I used the ganache and I don't think I'll go back to regular frosting again.

Brownies

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the wet ingredients together. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry to the wet until well incorporated.

Grease a small square baking dish. I think mine is about 9". Pour in brownie mix and bake until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean, which is around 35 minutes.

Cool and frost.

For ganache, you heat 8 oz heavy cream until boiling and then pour it over 9 oz of chopped up chocolate or chocolate chips. For spreadable ganache you have let it cool in the fridge for a bit.

It's a fast, easy recipe that you can whip up anytime you have a chocolate craving.